Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali,

Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali, former bishop of Rochester, England — once the see of English martyr St. John Fisher — and a champion of persecuted Christians in Islamic countries, has joined the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. “I write to let you know of my reception into the ordinariate established for Anglicans who wish to be in full communion with the See of Peter,” Lord Nazir-Ali announced….

An Ordinariate priest told Church Militant that “Lord Nazir-Ali is the most high-profile convert from the Church of England to Rome for the last 100 years, probably since the conversion of the intellectual giant Msgr. Ronald Knox.” “Michael is one of the most prodigious intellects of our time, a heroic apologist for the faith, a bulwark against radical Islam, a laser-sharp cultural commentator, a persuasive preacher, a passionate evangelist of the highest caliber, and a brilliant linguist and poet,” the priest said….

Church Militant also learned that efforts were made at the highest level of the Vatican to dissuade 72-year-old Nazir-Ali from converting to Catholicism. “First, Nazir-Ali isn’t the kind of convert we are looking for under the Francis pontificate. Second, such a high-profile conversion is a setback to ecumenism. Third, Pope Francis seems to have always indicated he believes in the validity of Anglican orders,” a senior Argentinian-based Anglican cleric who knew Cdl. Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires told Church Militant….

The first non-white diocesan bishop in the Church of England and an Islamic scholar who is fluent in Urdu and Farsi, Pakistani-born Nazir-Ali faced biting criticism from his liberal fellow Anglican bishops for not toeing the Church of England’s politically correct line on Islam.

An indefatigable campaigner against Muslim apostasy laws in Pakistan and a prolific writer on Islam, Nazir-Ali said he regretted the church was not doing enough to convert Muslims to Christianity.

“The so-called ‘blasphemy law’ has caused considerable grief for Christians and other non-Muslim minorities since even the expression of their belief can be construed as insulting the Prophet,” he wrote in a foreword to Freedom to Believe: Challenging Islam’s Apostasy Law.

After a 15-year apostolate as the 106th bishop of Rochester, Nazir-Ali resigned his bishopric at the age of 59, announcing he would devote the rest of his life to working for persecuted Christians in Muslim-dominated regions.

In 2008, the bishop received death threats after criticizing Islamic extremists for creating “no-go areas” for non-Muslims in Britain. However, thousands of white working-class Britons wrote to him and in the media commending him for his truth-telling and courage.

Nazir-Ali, who also served as bishop of Raiwind in Pakistan, blamed multiculturalism for segregating religious groups and said Britain’s abandoning the Christian faith had led to a “multi-faith mish-mash.”

The ideology of Islamic extremism had further alienated “the young from the nation in which they were growing up and turn[ed] separate communities into ‘no-go’ areas,” he wrote in Britain’s The Sunday Telegraph.

“If it had not been for the Black-majority churches and the recent arrival of people from central and Eastern Europe, the Christian cause in many of our cities would have looked a lost one,” he argued.